Clinton says his 'adversity' no barrier to Demo gains

CLEVELAND (AP) - President Clinton told Democratic campaign donors Friday to set aside fears that the Monica Lewinsky controversy would hurt their party at the polls next month.

Referring to his personal trouble as "this adversity," he said it would not endanger Democratic candidates and might even bring out more supporters interested in "big issues" such as saving the Social Security system and strengthening education.

"In this election, all this adversity is not our enemy," he told a luncheon that

raised at least $100,000 for Democrat Mary Boyle in her uphill race against Republican Gov. George Voinovich for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat John Glenn.

"The adversity is our friend," Clinton said after stopping to greet people on a street in the West Park section of Cleveland. "They might vote now," he said, because they are getting the message that there are "big issues at stake."

As a lead-in to his comments, Clinton alluded obliquely to the Lewinsky affair.

"We all have to live with the consequences of our mistakes in life," Clinton said. He added with a rueful chuckle, "Most of us don't have to live with it in quite such a public wayoo."

He did not refer directly to the release Friday of almost 5,000 pages of documents from Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation. Later, Clinton was traveling to Philadelphia where he was joining Mayor Edward Rendell at a pair of events at City Hall that were expected to raise $500,000 for two arms of the Democratic National Committee.

Democrat Joseph Hoeffel, who is challenging GOP Rep. Jon Fox in Pennsylvania, said he planned to stay away from Clinton's Philadelphia fund-raiser.

"I don't want to be distracted by all of this sensational and salacious focus on the president's behavior," Hoeffel said. "I would love to have Hillary back. I would love to have Al Gore. But not Bill Clinton."

In his remarks at the Cleveland fund-raiser, Clinton took aim at a Republican proposal for $80 billion in tax cuts, saying it was an illusion.

Clinton said Republicans were pressing the tax cut as a way to paint Democrats as hardhearted just weeks before the November elections, "but it's not very much money, and we waited 29 years" to balance the budget.